You may have heard of Twitter being touted as a great place to find teaching resources, ideas, and other professional development opportunities, as well as a place to grow your Personal Learning Network (PLN.)  You may also have signed up for Twitter at some point, only to be confronted with suggested follows consisting of comedians, musicians, actors, athletes, and politicians, but not necessarily educators. Perhaps your  Twitter timeline currently consists of updates on what your uncle watched on TV last night. So where is this promised land of professional resources for educators on Twitter?  

One of the best gateways into Twitter for educators is exploring and utilizing hashtags. There are thousands of relevant conversations happening on twitter at any moment centered around educational hashtags. You actually don’t even need to sign up for Twitter to begin exploring this world of educational hashtags, but you do need to discover what the hashtags are that relate to your professional and personal interests.

The chart below lists a few suggested hashtags and twitter chats to explore for relevant resources and conversations. Click on any of these hashtags to see what conversations are happening about that topic in real time. As you browse the search results of these hashtags you may also find great educators and organizations to follow on Twitter who will make your timeline more relevant to your interests. You also may find other useful hashtags being used in the same tweets. For even more educational hashtags and twitter chats, check out The Complete Guide to Twitter Hashtags for Education, the Education Chats on Twitter List and Calendar, or this exhaustive Index of Educational Hashtags.

Exploring Educational Hashtags on Twitter

Hashtag	Site or Archive	Description
#edchat	[site]	This is a general hashtag for all conversations about education. There are also scheduled chats on current teaching trends and other relevant topics every Tuesday.
#edtech		Resources, conversations and topics related to teaching and learning with technology.
#elemchat	[site]	Venue for discussing issues and strategies specific to elementary school educators.
#engchat	[site]	English Teacher Chat
#kinderchat	[site]	Kinderchat is an ongoing global dialogue among those active in the teaching and learning community of Young Children.
#mathchat		Math Education Chat. See also #math, #ElemMathChat, #msmathchat, #edtechmath.
#scichat		Science Education Chat
#spedchat	[site]	Special Education Chat
#sschat	[site]	Social Studies Teachers Chat
#tlchat	[site]	Teacher Librarian Chat
#utedchat	[site]	Utah Educational Chat, Wednesdays at 9 PM MDT.
#1stchat	[site]	First Grade Teachers Chat
#2ndchat	[site]	Second Grade Teachers Chat
#3rdchat	[site]	Third Grade Teachers Chat
#4thchat	[site]	Fourth Grade Teachers Chat
#5thchat	[site]	Fifth Grade Teachers Chat
#6thchat	[site]	Sixth Grade Teachers Chat

Granite Educational Hashtags

Hashtag	Description
#GraniteDC	Discussions and resources related to the Granite Digital Conversion project. Currently focused on ELA teachers in secondary schools, this project will eventually expand to math, science and other content areas. #GraniteELA, #GraniteSci, etc. might be useful in the future.
#GraniteEdTech	Use this hashtag to find and share educational technology resources and snapshots of technology integration in the classroom.
#GraniteLibraries	Use this hashtag to find and share library resources and cool things happening in Granite's school libraries.
#GraniteTechChat	Monthly Granite Educational Technology Department Chat. Centered on topics for school technology specialists and library media educational technology specialists, but any other interested educators are also welcome.